Hi reefers i wanted to know which 2 part dosing you guys recomend i started my tank 1 month ago and i been buying my saltwater from my local LFS and my magnesium , alkalinity, calcium are pretty low and wanted to start dosing to get it stable and reach the number to start adding lps corals which brand you guys recomend?
There are two things here to think about. One, your water changes and two, your element consumption. They can be interlinked, but water changes typically won't keep up with consumption.
Your salt mix, and which one to pick, is a discussion in of itself. Personally, I use Tropic Marin Reef salt. I know people who use many brands. There are lots of theories on whether to do water changes to manage waste removal and such, but that is a deep discussion. Some of your trace elements will be replenished with just water changes...but usually not enough to keep up with the coral consumption.
For your element consumption, there are the basics (or big 3)...alkalinity, calcium and magnesium. Then there are trace elements. Products like Bionic don't really have trace elements in them...they focus on the big 2 or 3 and often referred to as the "two part" or "three part" dosing. You can add trace elements if you want. You need to replenish these regularly, beyond water changes, because your corals are absorbing them out of the water. The other way to replace the big two (alkalinity and calcium) is a calcium reactor. Bionic is a great product and been around a very long time...since the 90s. But you can make your own if you want. Bulk Reef Supply provides pharmacy grade concentrated elements in a powder form that you simply mix with RO water in a gallon or quart jug and dose.
Then there are the trace elements. There are lots of ways to dose these..by hand, by dosing 3 or 4 part offerings or individually. The one I use is the Triton Core7 method. Even when dosing a 3 or 4 part regiment, you still may need to dose individual elements because your corals are consuming more than you are dosing...like iodine, strontium, etc. What is great, we have the ICP testing today that helps identify which elements you may be under or over dosing. Some test kits measure the trace elements..and others don't do it very well.
There are a lot of moving parts on the chemistry. When you are first starting out, I would encourage you to read the beginners sticky threads on Reef2Reef. They will be very helpful. We can help you here too...and you are always welcome to call me directly if you like...to answer your questions. PM me if you want...
